FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions

Natural wine is made with organic or bio-dynamic principles in the vineyard without artificial treatments, but what differentiates it the most from these qualified categories are the minimal treatments used and more natural techniques masted in the cellar.

This often includes spontaneous fermentation of the grapes using wild or native yeasts and little to no sulphites prior to bottling, which helps keep the wine alive. Most natural wines are left unfiltered. YOu can read more on this topic under the section "Why Natural Wine' and on our blog.

Well, the main difference is unlike most shops, we don't hold ALL of the wines in our warehouse.

Instead we have built partnerships with the specialist natural wine importers and in addition to our own stock (which you can see listed as 'more natural wine' as the vendor under the wines) we represent their wines (which you can see their names).

This means, when you shop with us, you have the choice of ALL of the shops combined, in one place! That means you have much more choice than many online stores selling natural wine, and we are able to pass the savings (of not investing and holding all the stock) onto you by keeping the prices fair. We deliver the combination of wines you order from each importer in one go, weekly. That's what makes us different

This is something we aim to build on in the next few months, and our apologies for that. There are just two of us doing this and we wanted to get the webshop 'out there' first, and fill in the info on the producers later. This is partially as the webshop is constantly rotating based on our model of working with local importers. Brief tasting notes will also come shortly.

Because we don't hold stock of wines and we work with small specialist importers who may not have lots of stock themselves, we don't want to risk you ordering 20 bottle of one particular wine and us not being able deliver them - just in the rare case there is suddenly unexpected low stock with our partners (which we will manage by making the wines unavailable when this is the case). However this does NOT mean you cannot order more than three of a certain wine, we just need to know about it first to organise.

We're a married couple, Chris & Anika. We set up MORE Natural Wine because we found there was a need to buy LOTS of awesome natural wines in one place online. Essentially, we're linking up our favourite wine shops into one central place.
We also run Oooh, Berlin! which print cool, free area guides of Berlin featuring our favourite natural wine bars, speciality coffeeshops, casual restaurants and interesting boutiques.
www.ooohberlin.com

We all had to start somewhere, and we were quite lost for where to go when we first started drinking low-intervention wines too. For this reason, we have created a Special Box which features a small selection wines to introduce you to how different these sorts of wines can be compared to conventional, commercial wines. We've made this a super reduced price to help you catch 'the natural wine bug' like we did too! Find this box under the top menu "Special Boxes"

Natural wine really is a totally different product to what 98% of the world's wines are like, both in production method, attitude in the vineyard and of course, the taste and flavour profiles.
Many of the wines we sell are unfiltered, which in itself allow for a totally different texture to the wine. It's very different to the tighter, refined style most commercial wineries strive to achieve, and that's one reason we love natural wines so much too! When you buy these wines, they are genuinely much more 'alive' than commercial wines, because they have a very limited amount of sulphites added (many with none at all) which commercial winegrowers use to stabalise the wine at the point they feel it is ideal to sell at. These wines however, are made by artisan growers who believe real wine should not be held back by excessive suphites, flavour enhancers, tight filtration or additives and as such, the wines are often much more free, more expressive and more charismatic. Sometimes this can include certain odours or flavour profiles you might not be used to, including brettanomyces (or Brett for short) which is a yeast that gives off a slightly barnyard smell in certain doses. Some critics would claim this as a fault, whilst others will claim it as part of the wine itself.

Before you totally disregard any of these wines you find offputting at first, we suggest putting the cork back in and trying it the next day... or the next. It's amazing how much these natural wines develop once they have had some contact with oxygen and we've often found some wines we did not love at first became instantly more appealing after two days in the fridge!

Of course, if you believe your wine to be faulty or damaged on arrival, please do let us know and we will try to rectify the problem as quickly as possible.

A Pét-Nat wine (formally known as pétillant naturel) is a type of sparkling wine, the method of which pre-dates the method used for Champagne. Its where the wine in bottled before it has finished properly fermenting, and so undergoes a secondary fermentation IN the bottle, which not only creates the bubbles but give the wine a distinct flavour. This is mainly because the wines, unlike most proseccos or champagnes, are unfiltered and still contain the yeast sediments within. It's a risky process for winemakers to do, because they are bottling all the particular wine before it has finished fermenting... so they have no way of really testing a batch until its all bottled. However, the results are often delightful and results in a cloudier, sometimes yeastier-flavoured wine than most drinkers new to natural wine may expect.

Orange wines, or 'skin-contact wines' as they are usually called, are made using white grapes that are made like a red wine. This means the grapes are macerated with their skins on for a period of time. As the skins have a lot of flavour, tannins and colour to them, this changes the profile of the wine, and provides an orange hue (which varies depending on the grape, climate and amount of time the grapes are left to macerate with their skins on - anywhere from a few days to even a year!) Skin-contact wines have a very distinct flavour, especially due to the tannins, which is totally different to what you would find with most reds, whites and rose wines. Expect slightly intense and slightly sour notes of tangerine, sherbert, bruised apples alongside honey and caramalised aromas. They're a little strange at first but it's a big world to explore! Look our for skin-contact wines from Georgia, who have been making wines like this for centuries and are considered the masters of it to many. Italy is also very well respected for their skin-contact wines. You can find all of our skin-contact wines under the top menu 'See All Wines' section.